So, today we’ve launched our Crowdfunding campaign. Last year we used Crowdfunding to raise funds for the rover project, and came within a couple of points in our assessment score of becoming the first UK team to go to the University Rover Challenge. This year, with your help we could do better, and make it to the competition, helping raise the profile of our university, and generally fly the flag for our activities here in STEM (particularly engineering and the growing UK space sector).

In addition to that project, we have been accepted to the Spaceport America Cup. This is a big deal, it’s the largest collegiate rocketry competition in the world, only one UK team has been before, and we’re working on designing how we’ll fly an experiment to give some real data for use by OU research students.

The Mars Society hab, MDRS, Utah

For both these projects, we need funds in order to physically complete the projects, and then to be able to actually go to the competitions. The rover competition takes place at the legendary Mars Desert Research station (MDRS) in Utah, an amazing looking analogue for Mars itself, and of great interest to geologists. To compete in the Spaceport America Cup we need to take ourselves and our rocket to New Mexico, base ourselves in Las Cruces, within striking distance of the first commercial

Las Cruces, New Mexico

spaceport in the world, Spaceport America.

We’ll be writing more about our projects, so please follow us and find out more. If you can help us, please donate, and pleas share the link for our Crowdfunding page even if you